So I used my seine net for the first time at my cabin this past weekend and collected a small pumpkinseed sunfish (2.5" inches), I placed it in a livewell (which was in the lake) that already had two bluegill of the same size for the night. I transferred them home in a five gallon bucket and added them to my aquarium. That transfer must have been too much for one of the small bluegill as I found it lifeless at the bottom of my tank. The other two fish (pumpkinseed and bluegill) were kind of beat up (I'm assuming it was from being in the livewell for 24 hours and the waves most likely making them hit the sides...never thought of that until I saw them in my tank), they're fins showed some wear. I noticed a day later that the pumpkinseed was developing fin rot on his tail fin, I treated my tank twice with Triple-Sulfa and the pumpkinseed's tail rot appears to be gone and slowly growing back to normal. The surviving bluegill is doing great and eats from the surface with my Yellow perch and Largemouth bass (both are about 3.5-4" right now), the pumpkinseed having the fin rot just kind of hung out in areas that were dark but today I noticed him swimming around and even feeding on the bits of food that were sinking or got pushed under by the filters. Then I watched the small bluegill start pestering the pumpkinseed and chasing him around, he made the pumpkinseed real uneasy, and eventually drove him back into the dark spots in the tank. Now as I'm typing this, the small bluegill is making a few runs at the perch. Any idea why he's being aggressive, he's not having to compete for food, my parameters are good, I just did a 25% WC last night, he has live plants and driftwood to make him comfortable. I don't know if bluegills are normally aggressive or if there is anything I can do. But if he's being combative and stressing other fish out, I can't have that and will have to move him to a different tank. If anyone has any tips or insight, please let me know! Thanks!
Aggressive Bluegill
Started by
Guest_MWBradshaw_*
, Jun 24 2010 04:53 PM
4 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_donkeyman876_*
Guest_donkeyman876_*
-
- Guests
Posted 24 June 2010 - 05:45 PM
Both of those species an be aggressive but usually only too those of the same kind. They are probably just establishing territory, if it continues for more than a week or so, how large is said aquarium? It could be an awkward size for them to establish. The bucket probably wasn't overly friendly on the either, but they should recover.
#3
Guest_MWBradshaw_*
Guest_MWBradshaw_*
-
- Guests
Posted 24 June 2010 - 08:24 PM
I know, the bucket is the best I had at my cabin. I added ice to keep the water temp from rising before I left but they were in there for an hour, I wasn't too happy about that. My aquarium is a 36 gallon bowfront, not huge by any means. But I would think it would substantial for 4 fish all being under 4" (2 at 2.5"). They don't act or look crowded in there. But I also think that it could be an awkward size in the sense that they won't really establish territory. So you would advise watching for about a week? It bothered me to watch the pumpkinseed being bullied by the smaller bluegill, especially since it's just getting over it's fin rot. But I guess that's just comes with the territory of native tanks (this is my first native tank so I'm still learning).
#4
littlen
-
- NANFA Member
- Washington, D.C.
Posted 25 June 2010 - 10:21 AM
Believe it or not, the four fish in the 3 to 4 inch range in 36 gallons is just enough (in my opinion) for the more aggressive animals to try to establish a territory. Your Bluegill seems to be the victor. As I assume you want to have more than 1 or 2 fish in there (once you remove the subordinate fish)your other option is to add a few more so that they are actually unable to set up an adequate territory. Either way, it looks like you're going to have to remove fish so why not try adding another 3 or so fish in the same size range. I have 2 very large tanks (each the same size), one more heavily stocked with Sunfish than the other. I tend to notice more frequent tattered fins in the less stocked tank as the dominate fish chase and pick on the others.
Let us know how that goes.
Let us know how that goes.
Nick L.
Reply to this topic
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users
NANFA Youtube Channel 
